Mass Effect: Knight
by ElazulKnight
Summary: The story of Elazul, a soldier belonging to Cerberus, and how his life and Shepard's intersects. It's an adventure depicting what life was like for some pretty special people in Mass Effect. Many of the characters in this are OC mixing in with already existing heroes we know and love. The timeline is as accurate as can be and you'll find everything in this from action to romance.
1. Prelude Part 1

**-To clarify to many of you, this is a piece of fan work. I may have some facts wrong from the original Mass Effect Trilogy but this is what I'm basing my story on-**

I would like to tell you the story of the "Clean Bandit" tonight children. You see, this story very much ties in with my previous stories of "The Shepard" but I'd just like you to know how much he'd influenced one man and how far this man would go to help "The Shepard . The story's a little sketchy but I remember every detail of evidence toward this man's existence.

Enough of that though. It's time for me to start...

You see as I've said before, Commander Shepard was brought up in the slums of Earth and many think he brought himself up alone. Many think that he became the hard commander we know today there through his own strength of will. You should know he has a brother. Not a blood brother mind you but a brotherhood that grows with trust and the time they spend with each other. His name as you know it, was Clean Bandit however in the past he was Elazul Knight.

Now, these two men were just boys on earth. Both of them Orphans without a path and direction for their lives to follow. All they could do was protect each other and they were content with this. But let me tell you how these two met.

John Shepard was 8 years old then. Living in the slums of Earth, John learnt how to take care of himself but not in the way you'd expect.  
He would never beg. He would never steal. He would work as a courier, and an informant for the law. In particular, a lawman named Sargent Keval F. Genham.  
Sgt. Genham was a tall man, medium brown skin, narrow eyes, and skinny beyond what most would consider healthy. This was not the case however as John had seen first hand how strong and fast Sgt. Genham really was. It was not something to be taken lightly. Every bit of fat that this man would have put on was instead transferred into pure muscle due to his rigorous training regime.  
He always gave John money to use however he pleased regardless of whether John had relevant information for his current case or not. A man of virtue who wanted to look after John but could not due to the fact that it was illegal for a policeman to adopt stray orphans.

Today was no different. "What have you got for me on the eezo-gangs today John?" started Sgt. Genham already opening his wallet. John looked up from his untouched rag-tag meal of beef and couscous mixed in with some sort of sauce with tomatoes with a frown on his face. "This can't be good."

"The Bandits are planning to raid the up-town schools. They're looking to kidnap biotic children." Exclaimed John. "I don't know when it's going to be but there will be a lot of Bandits there."

Sgt. Genham listened intently as John provided details on the up and coming attack picking up every little detail and suggestions that this child spewed out. "Thanks kid."Sgt. Genham knelt down and gave John his pay. "The day's coming you know? The day that every child like you will be taken off the street. You made your choice about what you want to do out of going into education or the military yet?"

"I don't think it's fair sir... for someone of my age to have to choose between two things like that but if I had to choose, I'd want the military." John paused. "What do you think sir?"

Sgt. Genham stood and turned away from him lost in thought and strategies to propose for the incoming attack but snapped back into reality long enough to say "Your choice will affect the future John, do what you think is right" and walked away leaving the child with cold food on his lap.


	2. Prelude Part 2

After gaining more information Sgt. Genham found that the Bandits plan on kidnapping the children of high end schools and nurseries in the district to put them up to ransom for a lot of credits and munitions. However, schools and such places were not then closed for fear of widespread panic and if they were closed, not only would the children lose time in education but the police doubted that the attack would stop. It was highly probable that the Bandits would attack residential areas to get any hostages they could which in turn could result in more casualties than necessary. Nevertheless the authorities would not leave these students defenseless and heavily increased police presence as well as making sure there were armed response units available at all times ready to mobilize in case of an attack.

The metropolis that covered earth was quieter than usual that morning. It was not in the slightest bit dead. Cabs, cars and heavy goods vehicles propelled by jets flew overhead as John Shepard slept soundly in his alleyway. He liked to believe was his due to the fact it was gated, locked and only he and Genham had the only keys. It was a messy and dirty but he planned on cleaning it up sooner or later. There was no shelter there either so he slept in the open air.

John felt an immense, deafening, crashing sound followed by the tremor of the ground below causing him to thrash awake from his sleeping bag. A burning carcass of what remained of a cab lay burning in his alley blocking his way out. Startled, he scrambled back from the wreckage and leaned against the wall not really realizing what on earth could have happened Slowly his vision came into focus and his hearing returned and he heard screaming and the roaring of flames all around. He immediately threw on his brand new jet black trainers that he recently bought and sewed the laces in, grabbing his jacket and gloves. _"I've got to get those people out of that car." _He thought to himself and grabbed a heavy metal pipe that was lying nearby. He hoped that his clothing would keep the flames and heat off. Gathering his courage, he marched at the wreckage and smashed the driver's side window facing him, heat erupting from it as the glass smashed. He looked in noticing an unconscious driver and tried to heave him out of the window. John's strength was good for someone of his age but he could never have hoped to lift the man out of the window. He stepped back from the blaze and felt ashamed that this man would die and that he could do nothing about it.

Suddenly a flicker of an idea materialized to form a coherent thought that caused his body to spring into life flying at the driver's door, unlocking it from the inside and opening it. He undid the driver's belt and dragged the body out of the car and further and further and further from the cab. He fell backwards from exhaustion. Crawling on his knees, he checked the man's clothes for a blaze. Fortunately there were none. Relaxed, he fell back and looked at the charred vehicle and took a breath and sighed in relief. He had just saved this man's life.

* * *

450 meters up. The bandits had forced parents and children into a playground and were holding them at gunpoint. Sirens blared and armed officers dressed in shiny dark grey armor took cover behind their vehicles blaring negotiations with the terrorists through using any means available. John had managed to get out of his alley after waiting for over an hour for the flames to go out had gone up top to investigate the commotion. As he expected, it was the raid.

From his guess, over 500 people were being detained in the school playground by gunsmen and the situation was going nowhere quickly. He looked into the crowd, his eyes made contact with a mother's. They were scared. He could tell. He'd seen those eyes somewhere before but he couldn't place it. In any case, she looked like she was trying to tell him something but he couldn't get past the police line to get a closer look on the situation but he's been in and around this area before. He knew of the "secret" way to get into the school. He had one of the school children tell him about 4 months back an he'd never forgotten it. John circled around the policemen and knocked on the front door of a nearby house. As the door opened, he barged past a skinny, tall middle aged man with dark brown skin and no hair who exclaimed madly at this strange child. He sprinted out the back of the house through the open doors and dove into the bushes at the far end of the garden. Normally he would have climbed some fences to get here but he didn't have time. He had to find out what the woman wanted.

There was a hole in the fencing he could squeeze through and it led into the back of the school grounds. It was empty there. He knew however, the moment he rounded the corner there would be armed Bandit mercenaries children and parents. He peered around the corner and saw the scene he expected. Screaming civilians, Bandits barking commands. He found the mother from before in the thick crowd but she was looking in the wrong direction. It was at this moment that John noticed a nestled up baby in the mother's arms wrapped in white cloth. How strange that he didn't see it before. A panic started in the crowd causing them to frantically rush at the guards who spared no time firing into the civilians causing a massacre.

John saw the mother waste no time in trying to get the infant to safety as she turned and started to sprint into the mercenaries behind her. As she did so, she dropped to the floor, blood exploded from her shoulder throwing her baby across the floor and past the unwitting gunmen who were too focused on the crowed to care about one child at all. John sprinted over to the screaming baby, knelt down beside it and scooped it up. It was lighter than he had expected. As he looked up, he saw the mother screaming something he couldn't hear over gunfire and shouts but as he stood and turned away to run, she smiled.


	3. To Be A Hero

"Hey, little man. How you feeling?" John asked with a kindness to his voice not many have heard. He had grown to a height of 6 foot and living on the streets with a child he met 9 years ago. The boy, around 10 years of age, groaned as he twisted around in his plain green sleeping bag not wanting the attention from what he thought of as his brother. "Still not juiced up for the day? Well, I guess you won't want to know who's visiting today then?". The child unzipped the sleeping bag in a manner more commonly associated with a butterfly trying to escape it's lava filled cocoon and rolled across the concrete floor of the alley he lived in before jumping to his feet and gazing around trying to get things into focus due to the blood rush. Moments later, he managed to get a sense of his bearings and looked at the figure walking down the alley toward him.

A suited slim figure limped slowly toward the boys and spoke in a rough but in no way aggressive voice "Good morning, Elazul. John been treating you well?".  
"As well as he usually does." grumbled Elazul.  
"In my experience that means he's doing wonderfully. In any case, I was wondering if the two of you would like to come with up to the markets today. It's going to be one of those old style ones with the stalls and the people with items on display! You haven't been to one before have you?" Elazul's eyes lit up as he said the words. John merely smiled as he saw the happiness seep into the boy. "Get dressed into something smarter and let's get going."

Though both John and Elazul lived on the streets, they were in no way uncomfortable. With Genham's help they had transformed an alleyway between two towering skyscrapers into a thin 3 story working home complete with beds, toiletries, a kitchen and power as well as a training room. John had already been dressed to go a couple of hours ago so he and Genham went outside to talk about something while Elazul tried to find something suitable to wear. He settled with a dark blue shirt with a curved silver line going down on each side of the shirt with dark brown trousers and a jet black pair of trainers that used to belong to John. He combed his short pale white hair once to the side and ran out the front door slowing down to a stop by Genham and John.

"Brush your teeth" John said bluntly. The boy rolled his eyes, ran back in, and ran back out 2 minutes later.  
"Done"  
"Okay, let's go!" Genham's gruff voice did not suit his enthusiasm but it made the boys feel safer knowing he was there to protect them.

Genham, John and Elazul were very fit people. They had always walked or run to their destinations unless they were in a hurry in which case a cab would be hailed and they would fly to their location. Today however, there was no rush whatsoever and had planned to run to their destination 2.1 miles away. Genham raised his hand to his chest level and an orange colored hologram assembled around his hand. Genham set them a target of 16 minutes to reach there on his omni-tool and started running from the house at 10:42am. The time and distance set was the equivalent to a leisurely jog for the two older of the trio but for the youngest, it was a mediocre challenge especially since Elazul had recently found that he was able to manipulate mass effect fields and propel himself medium-long distances if he gets tired which was rare anyway.  
Since he had nothing else to focus on during the run, Elazul took in everything around him as he usually did when running through the streets. It kept him from being bored and both John and Genham prohibited the use of music playing when they were out with each other.

All the towering buildings had slightly different shapes to the top of them but most were the same on the way up. The bottom two floors were usually made of brick, marble, or concrete and seemed to be very old in comparison to the rest of the floors above. Shiny silvery glass lined each building reflecting other buildings around it. Occasionally he would see residential towers that had balconies that had vegetation growing over top of their banisters or trees growing in allocated squares in pedestrian areas but vegetation was no longer a necessity. Carbon Dioxide emissions could be converted through some of these bollard shaped pylons sticking out from the ground and roofs of buildings. The poorer people would often live at the base of these buildings and Elazul would often see them leave home in the morning, going to the train station nearby and riding it to work. Middle class people who drove to work lived in the center of the towers. These people would take up the majority of these buildings leaving only the top and bottom two floors for the poor and rich respectively. Police patrolled the streets in threes and fours and wore dark grey armor covering their entire body save their lower arms and head and were armed with tasers as well as a set of handcuffs. Police who traveled in cars on the other hand often wore the lower arm guards and helmet arming themselves with military grade assault rifles. The path they ran would lead them up a few levels and they would eventually be at the height of the 7th floor by the time they reached the markets.

"Alright! We're here!" John exclaimed proudly looking at his watch. The time on there was 10:56. Genham confirmed it with his omni-tool. It was a time that all participants were happy with and they wasted no time in checking out the stalls before them. There were so many things on display it was like being in Aladdin's fabled cave of wonders. Clothes, computer games, cakes, sandwiches and so much more had several stalls dedicated to one brand and another stall dedicated to another. "Here's the credits you can spend." John gave Elazul the credit chit "There's 300 credits on there, don't waste it on useless things." Elazul nodded indicating he understood and ran into the crowded market leaving the other two behind.

A few hours later John called Elazul to tell him to meet back at where he ran off earlier in the day. Elazul simply replied "sure" closed his slide phone and pocketed it with a single swift movement. _Smooth moves. _As he nudged his way through the crowd he heard a loud crack from nearby and people start shouting. Curious, he pushed apart the crowd moving in the direction that people were screaming from. As he emerged from the panicking people, he was confronted with an outrageous view. It was a scene similar to one that he had seen many times in the slums but in his eyes it should have never happened here.  
A young man aged around 22 was wielding a display samurai sword and had managed to cut the another man across the chest with it who was lying on the ground with fear in his eyes. The attacker barked words at the injured and it was clear that the man standing with the sword was the stall owner and the man on the floor was trying to steal one of his more expensive pieces. As the stall owner shouted he raised his sword and yelled "This sword is worth more than your life and I'll prove it!" bringing it down toward the thief. The crowd screamed in fear and Elazul could do nothing but stand staring in shock. Just then a body flew into the sword expert and threw him a good distance to his side. Elazul quickly noticed that John was the body and had dove into the warrior to prevent him from killing the thief. John quickly got up and kicked the sword from the man's hands and pulling him to his feet. Unfortunately the sword was not kicked far enough and the stall owner quickly recovered it, got to his feet and ran at the thief. Again John stopped him by getting in his way this time physically baring him from the thief. "Stop this! What are you doing?" Shouted John.  
"Killing that son of a bitch for taking my things! Thieves deserve to die!"  
"And murderers don't? Think about what you're doing. Killing him would make you worse than him!"  
The assailant stopped trying to barge past and sighed. "I suppose you're right. Besides it's not worth going to prison over murder when the fucker got what he deserved already." referring to the gash in the thief's chest.  
"Let's get out of here, little man." Said John to Elazul and they reunited with Genham. Both the boys informed Genham of the whole situation and how it all played out on the way home.  
"Well done, John. You've just saved that man's life. I think that count's on two now right?" Genham beamed  
John smiled remembering the first time he saved someone. It was from a burning car many years ago. "Let's just get home."

Elazul was proud that this person he called brother was such a hero.


	4. Biotics

**Editorial Note: _I'm sorry for a couple of mistakes last chapter. At the end I wrote Josh instead of John. Please excuse my mistakes. I've tried really hard on this following chapter._**

He was so bored. Again. Elazul had to stay at home whilst John went out to "work". Though what that work really was Elazul had never found out. Sometimes Genham would arrive at the alley, pick John up and just leave. Sometimes they wouldn't be back for a couple of days and if they were away for that long John would often come back with an impressive number of injuries. It was going to be one of those nights again. It was getting late and Elazul had finished practising and enhancing his mass effect generated dark-energy pulses for the night against the fearsome Tin Cans of Doom so not only was he hungry but exhausted. These dark-energy pulses were visible and appeared to be some sort of hazy light blue to the naked eye and anyone with biotics could make them with practice. People who had biotic implants could further their control and power. Only soldiers and mercenaries really had these L1 and L2 implants. The L1 implants did nothing but slightly increase the focus of biotics while the L2 implants exponentially increased the potency and general use of the mass effect fields. These however came at a heavy price. About 10-20% of people with said implants were rumoured to have mental and physical deformities after having the implant of a long duration. Elazul never concerned himself with these facts as he was content with improving his abilities without the aid of such a cruel device.

He turned all the lights off in the alley but decided to grab a quick snack from the fridge. Running down to the kitchen, he opened the fridge, light flooding out of it into the dark abyss of his home. He scanned the fridge deciding that he would rather have some chocolate mousse than some cold meat and picked it up from the top shelf of the fridge. As he closed the fridge a grown up man's voice sounded from the direction of the front room. "Thanks I'd love some of that."

Elazul's eyes snapped in the direction of the voice noticing the silver shimmer of a pistol. He immediately raised a blocking field in front of him quick enough so that it stopped a silent bullet from hitting him square in the chest. He could not see the object but he heard it drop as he lowered his barrier to take cover behind a set of cupboards located in the center of the room. Torchlight flooded the kitchen from the front room and Elazul noticed that there were more than one person in the other room due to dual shadows being emitted by the light. He started panicking and his heart raced. What could he do against several men? His fields were good but they can only just about push John let alone several grown men but then how did he stop the bullet? He thought to himself that if he can stop bullets, he should be able to throw these men and escape. Elazul had seen John gather his wits together before to overcome a scary situation and it was time for him to do so as well. He focused on the sound footsteps of the men entering the kitchen and roughly located them in the room. He jumped up from cover and threw the strongest dark-energy pulse he could muster at an intruder who immediately screamed out in pain not due to the fact he was thrown but that the force of the pulse was so focused on a small spot on his body.

A click sounded and the kitchen got darker around Elazul. As he onto the hard tiled floor, he saw what had hit him. It was not a bullet. It was a dart.

Elazul was picked up and placed in the back seat of a car. Two men got in the front seats, the car started to hover slowly and then drift off into the dark night sky. Strangely, Elazul was still conscious and could hear every word the men said. "How much do you think we'll get for this one?"  
"I don't know but I still don't like dealing with them like this."  
"It better be at least the same as the last. This one was a bitch to catch. Did you see what he did to Clay's chest? It looked like he was struck by a damn sledgehammer."  
The conversation lasted for what felt like an hour by which stage Elazul had fallen asleep due to the exhaustion he was suffering from. The car stopped and all doors opened, blinding light shining in so even if the poor boy were still awake, he wouldn't be able to see much more than the silhouettes of the people examining him from outside. A needle was pushed into his skin causing him to flinch but he did not awaken. Voices sounded like they were confirming something and he was taken out of the car and thrown into a large metal cargo hold where he heard the screams of what sounded like other children. Then the cargo door was closed. Complete darkness. The only sounds were those of whimpering children who were too scared to cry. The cargo hold shifted slightly then raised onto what felt like some sort of transport the way it rumbled and swayed.

Every child sat in utter darkness against the cargo wall nestled to someone they knew or curled up alone. Elazul did not know how long he was immobilized and asleep for but he woke up into a hell hole. After taking everything in around him, he instantaniously screamed at the other children he could not see demanding to know where he was but all they did was cry and shout in return that they don't know. Eventually the cargo hold fell silent, no one having the energy to cry anymore. Elazul felt his stomach flutter as he slowly realized he had been kidnapped by a group of thugs and had no chance of escape. He crawled over to the wall bumping into another child already resting there. He apologized and moved over a space to sit there. "It's alright. I'm scared as well." said the child.  
Elazul simply replied "Yea" and silence dawned again in the emptiness.


	5. The Three Headed Dog

Three days of being moved from vehicle to vehicle in this container. It felt as if he were being moved to another solar system in this crate which was indeed a possibility considering that the human race perfected space travel within the last 50 years and have managed to work machines called Mass Relays which allowed ships to move to various other solar systems with ease. The captors would open the doors to the cargo hold once every day to supply the children with food and water. The food was not much at all. A sandwich per child with a bottle of water. Everyone had lost hope of escaping and had resorted to staying silent. Elazul felt some children may go mad by the end of the second day but he had gotten to know nearly everyone in the container and learnt that all but one were biotics. There was one person who wasn't. He was a 9 year old boy called Leon. Elazul hadn't been able to see much of him in the dark but he'd occasionally catch a glimpse of his black skin and short hair. They talked a lot however and came to the conclusion that Leon had been taken in a case of mistaken identity. They must have thought he was a biotic like everyone else. As they talked, they comforted others. In a place where emptiness resided, friendship was always welcome and by the third day, the children not only talked but as the fourth day drew closer, they sang and played games using their mass effect fields.

The cargo stopped it's usual rumblings and every child fell silent and sat down. The container doors opened letting in a gush of blinding light. For once it was daytime but Elazul knew that this must mean the end of the trip. Several armed men stood outside the container. They wore some sort of strange white and yellow armor that covered their entire body. "Get out" called one of the soldiers "and don't you dare try anything or we'll wipe out the lot of you." Elazul was the first to get up followed by Leon and started to walk toward the doors of the container. Elazul tried not to show fear but the promise of death was so strong with these people. He had to find a way out. Elazul and Leon both jumped down from the elevated container and looked around. They were in some sort of massive metal paneled room in a building and how they got there Elazul could not figure until a robotic female voice called over some indoor loudspeakers that the docking tubes were sealed and air pressure had been stabilized. They were on a spacecraft! No submarine would be this large and no land-to-land aircraft would need to stabilize air-pressure over time.

As the last of the children got out of the container, an entire wall heaved and started to fall away from the children. Pistons connecting them to the floors hissed and white smoke erupted from holes in the floor by the giant door. As it fully opened, the children were greeted with a view of a complex of several structures steel colored structures with massive windows surrounded by a dense jungle. The scent of petrichor was strong and a strong hot sun shone down over everything creating the illusion of a jungle paradise.

"Get in a line, stay close" Commanded one of the guards "and follow me. You don't want any of the Varren to get to you." The guards surrounded the children and forced them to move as a group toward the complex. As they neared the complex, the doors swooshed open sideways retracting into the wall and a smiley white skinned woman in her late 50s dressed in a white shin length coat stood inside waiting.

"Welcome! Welcome children!" said the woman in a voice so sweet it made Elazul flinch. "I trust that all of you have been treated adequately by our previous employees? Anyway, my name is Doctor Harewood and this place is the biotic enhancement facility. Your parents and guardians have actually sent you here but didn't want to tell you for fear of saying goodbye. Please understand that they only wanted you to have a better life!" Elazul's eyes flared up with rage knowing full well that this was a lie. John and Genham would never consent to this. They had so many plans for him. Unable to control himself, Elazul leaped forward through the guards and prepared to disperse a pulse from his palm into this bitch's chest that would shred her insides but before he could get far the woman simply moved her hand downward and Elazul came crashing into the ground. _She's a biotic! _Elazul couldn't move. He had been trapped in her mass effect generated stasis field. "See children? This place has even helped me become a stronger person as it will with you." and she let him free of stasis. "Now come with me." She turned and walked into the building with the children following suit.

The inside looked like a hospital but behind a window was an indoor park with walls surrounding a garden filled with trees and a lake. Other children were playing there. _Maybe this place isn't so bad after all. _

The rest of the day was spent by going to a massive hall and listening to a speech by the head of this "school" about rules and the people on site. All of these so called doctors were apparently meant to be helpers and people who enhance biotics depending on progress. After this, the children were introduced to the cafeteria and then shown to their rooms. There was no freedom as they had to be in certain places at certain times each day. There was something really off with this place and it wasn't just the one-way mirror near the park area. Elazul felt death here.


	6. Subject Zero

Elazul's eyes flickered open as he lay in bed wishing the past few days was just a dream. Unfortunately, the truth was and always will be hard to swallow. He sat up and looked around his room. It was a perfectly square 3 meter long room with pale light blue walls, with a clock above a glass desk. His bed was made of some silver colored metal but the mattress was comfortable enough. A bulletproof window was fixed beside the bed and it faced out into the forest. The door out was located opposite him as he sat there. A red light above the door gave the hint that it was locked. Beside it were the digits that read 'Subject 0713'. Turning his attention to the clock, he wondered when he could get out of the cell. Bored, he went over to the desk and made sure he was comfortable sitting at it. He took a sheet of paper and poured some paint into a pallet . He dipped a paintbrush in the black paint, slid it across the page once and got bored. He felt controlled. This was the only thing to do in this god forsaken room. Screw it. No it wasn't. He grabbed the pallet of various color paints and threw it against the wall causing colors to explode across it. He rubbed his hands in the paint and placed multi-colored hand-prints around the room and with areas he couldn't reach, he just threw paint there.

A loud bell sounded in the room and the light above the door turned green. The door retracted into the wall revealing a singular soldier standing there. "What the f..." started the soldier as he noticed the room's state before having paint thrown onto his helmet's visor. He recoiled backwards pulling his assault rifle up to fight off whatever else was coming but all he heard was laughter. Other guards immediately ran over and trained their sights on Elazul who grinned happily spinning around in his wheeled desk chair. "Goddammit, kid! You nearly gave me a heart attack." Said the soldier relieved he wasn't going to die. "You can come out and play in the park if you want."

"Might as well." sighed Elazul as he got up and walked out the door. When he walked into the park area, he noticed that other children played there that he hadn't met before. He looked up to look at the one way mirror again. How he knew it was only reflecting onto this side of the glass he did not know but he noticed that it occasionally wobbled as if something from the other side was trying to get out. At first it was not noticeable but after staring for long enough he could see it shimmering. There were several ways into the indoor park. One was the way in from outside, one lead to the residential areas he had just come from, and one was underneath the mirror. Each had a red light above them.

"Hey! You!" someone shouted. Elazul noticed it was the non-biotic from the cargo. He looked different in the light. His skin was still black but not as dark as his short hair. He was just about shorter than Elazul and wore a black 'SPECTRE COMICS' t-shirt with brown trousers. "You're Elazul right? I remember you."

"Uh, yeah. You're Leon." Muttered Elazul. "You like Spectres even though they're aliens?"

"Yeah. Why not? They're like super heroes!" exclaimed Leon. "Anyway, come meet my new friends!" he turned and beckoned a few kids to come over. "I've got to tell you now though, make sure that you don't tell anyone I'm not a biotic. I have a really bad feeling..." he stopped talking as the other kids got near. "Guys, this is Elazul. He's pretty safe."

Elazul got to know each child in the group quite well and managed to get some information out of them about this facility. Apparently this place does experiments on biotics by the scientists here and was run by a group that went by the name of Cerberus. Every child that was here before Elazul's group said that they now have some sort of implants. Some had their biotic abilities increased, some decreased but apparently these were the only two options as the third involved the child to never appear again. None of the children knew why this was the case. One of the children mentioned that this wasn't the worst thing to happen however. A girl nobody really knew named "Subject Zero" would often be brought into a room adjacent to the park and children would be lined up to fight her. Nobody ever won against her and children would often end up severely injured or if the girl was particularly upset that day, dead.. She was an incredibly powerful biotic who could fell any opponent with a single attack. "I'm pretty sure not even an Asari could beat her!" claimed one of the group.

"You mean those blue people?" wondered Leon

"Yeah. Did you know that they're all girls?"

"Really?" Elazul found himself trying not to speak more but couldn't help it "Have you ever met one?"

"On earth, only one." The boy stopped talking. Staring at the door below the mirror. "Oh no." The light had turned green and out came the female scientist from the day before who Elazul had tried to kill accompanied by 2 soldiers. "This either means that you two" refering to Leon and Elazul "are either going in for your first tests... or to face Subject Zero."

"Can subjects 0700 through to 0715 please go to the research department." Called an electronic female voice over the intercom. Remembering his number, Elazul and Leon briefly glanced at each other, and walked casually over to the door that just opened assuming this was the research department entrance. The message repeated about 5 times at 1 minute intervals until all of the new children had gathered there.

"Hello again, children. I did not introduce myself properly the last time we met. My name is Doctor Hughes. Today we're just going to run a few tests. Please come with me." She turned and walked through the doors, her escort soldiers tilting their guns in a manner which said 'please move or die'. They entered a large hall where at the end several soldiers stood in a circle around something. They were all surrounded by 3 foot long chest high concrete walls that were slightly separated from each other forming a large circle like an arena. "Children, what you are looking at here is the test of strength." Doctor Hughes proudly announced to the children. "Please stand around the test zone and await your turn. We will call out your number."

A small Asian looking boy with short black hair, aged 8, began crying. Elazul tried to calm him to no success. The child muttered something about not wanting to go first. "What makes you think that you're going first?" Elazul asked, trying in vain to comfort the child who started to attract the attention of the doctor and her companions in the room.

"I'm number 0700."

"Subject 0700!" called a male soldier in the white armor. "Step in now! Don't make me repeat myself or you're in for a world of hurt." The small boy couldn't control himself but the soldier threw him into the arena. As the child sprawled across the floor, the group of soldiers opposite dispersed revealing a girl who could be no older than Elazul. Her skin was pale white and her hair was so long it nearly reached the ends of her hands and covered her face entirely save her mouth which smiled evilly. The poor boy didn't even have time to get up, the girl fired a dark energy pulse which hit him square in the side of his face as he tried to get up launching him head first into the concrete wall. Children screamed as he saw blood seep from his head and onto the floor around his unmoving body. Elazul felt his stomach rise as 2 realizations set in; the boy may be dead and he will also have to fight this monster. "Subject 0701!" A slightly fat white skinned boy who by Elazul's estimate was 13 entered the ring slowly with his hands glowing in various shades of blue but before he could even consider attacking her, his leg snapped and bent the wrong way where his knee was, blood gushing from the wound where a bone was protruding. The boy fell backward crying in agony before his chest was pummeled by a dark energy pulse that the girl arched into him.

Leon whispered to Elazul "You're before me. I'm number 0714." Elazul nodded in response knowing full well that when his time comes he has to have thought of a way to beat this demon in disguise. Every child was clobbered, thrashed and thrown. Subject Zero seemed to have no problems dispatching everything that came her way. It seemed that this was not a test to see who could win or even survive against her but a test to see what kind of improvements Subject Zero has made against live subjects. Occasionally a child would be able to block an attack by raising a barrier or attacking the pulse but these proved useless as they were torn to pieces by this unimaginable power. The kid before Elazul walked into the ring barriers ready. Subject Zero smiled as she tasted her prey's fear knowing full well a simple push by hear would bring the barrier crashing down. She wanted to play with this victim. She pulled her legs out from below him causing him to collapse then threw several biotic punches at him. A scientist shouted at her commanding her to stop wasting their time and finish this test. She pouted and simply threw the kid out of the ring in a strop.

"Subject 0713!" Elazul was terrified but he knew that John and Genham had not trained him for no reason. They had made sure his body was in a physical condition so fit that he could out match an adult in a long distance race and if he combined his strength and biotics he could easily outmatch a single adult in a fight. Elazul did not walk in barriers raised. He sprinted in with full intent to win, dark energy charging in his hand as he raised it preparing to fire but before he could let a shot off Subject Zero had shown she had other ideas and struck him square in the chest with a pulse of her own. Elazul was thrown backwards but to the surprise of everyone including Subject Zero, Elazul remained standing clutching his chest and gasping for air. The first shot had heavily winded him but he wasn't going down without a fight. Enraged, the girl fired off several more shots at Elazul but this time, he was ready. He raised several small but strong barriers, one for each shot fired at him which did not block the blasts but reduced their impact significantly. Sensing an opportunity in a gap between two pulses Subject Zero was about to fire, Elazul brought his fist up sensing that speed was the key and tried to release a bolt of energy at her. He only had time to uncurl his index and middle fingers before a laser thin dark energy blast discharged from them at his opponent making a loud cracking sound. The bolt hit her in the left arm and blood gushed out of it from both impact site and the reverse of the arm. She screamed madly in pain, her long hair flying multiple directions as energy exploded from her throwing Elazul out of the ring. She leaped forward out of the ring and smashed down on top of Elazul with her weight and biotic force. He screamed in pain as he felt her break several ribs. Leon had run forward to intercept her and crashed into her throwing her off Elazul. She tried to throw Leon but only managed to push him back a few meters "Stop her! We can't allow further injury!" exclaimed Doctor Hughes. Soldiers armed with dart guns fired multiple shots into Subject Zero's back and she fell unconscious. Child number 0715 stood in awe as he watched all doctors try to help Subject Zero and no one but Leon trying to help Elazul as he lay bellowing in pain. One of the soldiers went up to Elazul and picked him up ignoring his screams of pain and dropped him off in his cell whilst 2 other guards escorted Leon and number 0715 back to theirs.

Elazul spent the next few hours in severe pain. He tried to stop the internal bleeding by creating mass effect barriers inside himself. Eventually some doctors took him away to perform surgery on him as he sustained an insane amount of damage. Leon's injuries were minimal however but all he could think of was the condition that his friend was in. There was no doubt that Elazul was strong but nowhere near as strong as Subject Zero. There was another problem that crept slowly into his mind. How long could he conceal his identity as a non-biotic?


	7. Impossible Odds

Leon stirred from his slumber. Three days since Elazul was taken away and he hasn't yet returned. This was to be expected however as the other children said that anyone who entered the ring never came out unscathed and that it could take up to 4 days for someone to be released. On the other hand, anyone who took longer than four days to recover were never seen again and with the injuries sustained by Elazul, this seemed more and more likely as the fourth day drew closer. Leon and subject 0715 had been spared further testing until their "control group" had returned. Only subjects 6 and 12 had returned thus far.

The green light lit up above the door indicating that he was now allowed to leave the room. Over the past couple of days Leon had started to measure everything that seemed important from the length of day to the distance between his room and every door. The day length was 29.6 hours, which means that he definitely wasn't on earth. The distance between him and the park was 27.8 meters, an easy sprint that would last 4 seconds. He had started to paint the walls in his room to give himself a sense of judgment. A single black line was painted at eye level with a red line coming off it for lock down and a green line for the time the locks are released. He put 3 brown lines for the time that he had to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner respectively at the canteen and a blue line for times that he had to converse with other children in different control groups and gather information. From what he'd gathered, the scientists were about to start the proper biotic testing on his group within the next 2 days. This meant that he had to find a way out within 2 days before they found out for certain that he was useless to them. Every night, he was allowed to roam free in the park area for an hour after dinner in the canteen. Every night a patrol of soldiers carrying supplies from the front entrance to the research area would pass through the park as the call for children to go to their rooms was announced. The guards will turn and walk the opposite direction to him which will give him the chance to sprint through the doors which would take 4.3 seconds to close. Tonight, he will attempt to escape.

Leon finished his dinner along with subject 6 (Alfred) and subject 12 (Vu). He talked about what it was like to be a biotic and whether or not he had to do checks every day if he were a biotic and tried to find out every little thing that could give him an advantage. After not learning of anything new, Leon got up with his tray, put it away and went to the park where he played games, and learned of a funny little fat alien race that requires a breathing mask called the Volus. "All children please return to your rooms." Echoed the voice over the intercom. Leon turned to walk toward his room slowly trying to stay within sprinting range. As expected, the doors opened, each guard walked in carrying a large silver container. As the last one walked through, Leon hurled ran at the doors and hurled himself through them. The doors closed just as his shoulder hit the ground on the other side. He gasped heavily looking around in case anyone was on this side he had not anticipated. Luck was on his side today as there was one person in there but he had been too busy listening to something on his radio to take notice of the sound of something falling. Leon hid behind some boxes and observed the room he was in.

This was the initial supply point. The exit was just beyond a set of reinforced double doors across the room which he noticed seems to be security protected better than the other doors as this one needed a card reader, a pass number, and vocal confirmation to get through. Then again, the room was massive and should really be referred to as a warehouse considering its use. Everything in this room were either white, silver or blue 6 foot high crates with various colored hexagonal labels with words on them. Reading the ones next to him, he learnt that red labels meant ammunition and weaponry, green labels meant scientific products, blue labels were hardware, yellow was food and brown was clothing, bed sheets and toiletries. Unfortunately, all of the crates had been locked shut with a key pad which he did not know the codes to. As he stayed hidden, the guards from outside strutted into the room and headed for a blue label supply crate. Leon knew that he wouldn't have a chance to get out through the front so he decided to watch the soldiers type in the code to this crate and take whatever they left behind and see what he could do with it. Surprisingly, finding out the code wasn't hard at all, one of the guards even said it out loud presumably because each container had a different key code. " 3". A high pitched beep sounded and the crate doors swung open. Each guard took a large box, closed the crate and left the room.

Leon typed in the key into the keypad and the doors parted as expected. He opened the first box inside to find some long coils of wire with pliers and other tools along with a large battery pack. The second box had some sort of metal frame and what looked at first to be brown rubber washing up gloves but as he lifted them, the weight and feel of the material told another story. This glove had a leather utility lined with Kevlar to make it resistant to damage the knuckles and palm were particularly reinforced and it looked like these gloves could be connected to the metal contraption inside. Leon's stomach lurched as he started to feel as if he had taken too long here. He decided to take what he could get and piled the two boxes on top of each other. He dragged them out of the crate and pulled them beside the door waiting for the soldiers to walk back in. This time, they walked in with someone else. A smartly dressed tall man with brown hair and white skin in a suit of some sort. His eyes had a glowing blue ring around the pupil which unnerved the boy but he remained hidden. He managed to get the boxes out of the storage area. He got to his room and found it to be unlocked. It must only be locked when it detects someone inside. Sure enough, the moment he walked in after pushing the boxes, the doors closed and locked behind him.

He opened the boxes and laid everything across his bed and took note of what he had. 2 large red and white battery packs, 1 metal contraption,4 20m long coils of thin conductive wire, 1 pair of heat resistant gloves, 1 set of tools. Curious to what the contraption was, he lifted it up and unfolded it. It appeared to be a full body harness of some sort that wrapped around the body from his neck to his arms and legs. The size of the harness was customisable so that anyone could use it, even a child. The rest of the night, Leon did not sleep. He slaved away at the contraption tying the wires around the harness and each other, creating chains and hooking them to the batteries. He adjusted sizes and got in and out of the harness multiple times adjusting the sizes to fit him the most comfortably and tightening the wires so that the didn't touch his skin. He tore up some clothes and created a make shift backpack by tying it to the harness and putting the batteries in there. He finished by pulling 3 meters of chained link shaped coil straight from the wrist areas of the harness. When he was content with how he had tuned and secured everything on it, he hid the elctric harness under the bed covers and slept with it beside him through what was left of the 11 hour night.

A loud bell sounded and the light above his door changed to green. He woke feeling groggy and tired. Immediately, an alarm sounded and all the doors were closed and locked. Leon panicked as he thought he'd been caught however, this was not the case. He heard over the intercom "All units to defense positions, this is not a drill." repeat over and over. The research facility was under attack! Leon hurriedly threw the on harness, put on the gloves and turned each battery on. At first his body spasmed violently and he fell to the floor unconscious. About a minute later he awoke feeling a tingle around his whole body. He stood up and wondered what happened as he looked at his makeshift lightning producer. Electricity bounced between each bar of his harness and the wires which dragged across the floor. He sat back on his bed already exhausted but he couldn't just sit there.

Outside, Genham hid behind the wreck of a battle tank taking cover from an onslaught between Cerberus and a group of his hired mercenaries. He had wanted to do this legally but Genham had no choice. The EPF (Earth Police Force) wouldn't listen to him so he had to take matters into his own hands. He had tracked gang members, followed shipping space crafts and spent nearly a million dollars on this rescue mission and that was nowhere near the limit of how far he would go to save Elazul. The mercenaries wore a variety of armor or clothing and most of them had equipped themselves with Avenger IV assault rifles. "Oi!" called the mercenary leader to his force "We better get in there fast before more of them show up! Charge!" Genham thought this man mad for sending such an order. His man ran from cover throwing grenades and firing blindly at their enemies. It was true that many mercenaries died but even more Cerberus soldiers did and those soldiers that survived retreated back into the facility. Genham sprinted after the mercenary leader. The leader was a 5'10" man named The Moxan with an attitude that says "fuck you" and a news record for murder not seen since Jack the Ripper. He was muscular and vain but was smart enough to wear a full body suit of shielded armor into combat. The armor was a black and red modded N7 suit which could send out recon and attack drones as well as overloading an enemy's shields and overheating enemy weapons. "Don't worry, little cop. We'll get your boy back. Beside's you've already payed us. Would be a dick move to turn it down now right?" he grinned.  
"Let's just get this over with" sighed Genham as he walked past into the first room. It was the supply room.

From the inside of his cell, Leon could hear gunfire and people screaming. He knew that none of them were children because they wouldn't have had time to leave before the lock-down so there must be a war between the soldiers. Leon walked over to the doors, picked up one of the chain link wire strands and placed it into the gaps between his door and the walls. Eventually, he managed to hit some sort of circuit controlling the lock mechanism and his door swished open revealing Cerberus troops firing toward the supply room. Leon was immediately filled with adrenaline and he was unable to control himself. He gripped his chain link wire coils and lashed at the closest trooper launching him backwards from the force of the hit and the electrical discharge. Leon sprinted through the soldiers using the chains as whips decimating the force around him. He looked towards the supply doors to see normal dressed people with guns stare in awe at the carnage they saw. Genham walked past the mercenaries and up to the boy. "That was utterly amazing, child. I'm surprised you didn't use your biotics though, son."  
Leon stuttered as he tried to get his words out "I-I'm not a biotic s-sir." Genham tried to put a hand on the boys shoulder but was launched backwards due to the amount of energy in Leon's suit.  
Moxan ran over to Genham "Keval! You okay?"  
Genham sat up dazed from the shock. "I'm alright, little brother. Ask him where Elazul is."  
Moxan walked over to the now cowering Leon "Where's Elazul kid? Answer now and we'll see about getting you out of here." Leon explained that Elazul had been injured and taken to the medical wing where they had performed surgery on him. Genham managed to get over to them and suggested that they take Leon back to the ship so that they can at least save one person if things went sour. Moxan agreed. He gathered up 8 of his men to escort Leon back to their ship.  
"Now then, let's go save your son, cop." smiled Moxan. "I'll take a group and head this way" pointing at the research department "and you take another group and head that way" pointing at the residential areas.  
"I agree, covering more ground and splitting up will save time and we'll be hitting them at multiple locations confusing them to our motives. Let's do it."  
"Alright lads!" shouted Moxan. "You lot go with the cop 'ere and the rest of you come with me! Move out!"

Genham and his group moved tactically through the residential areas taking out small groups of enemies quickly and efficiently. He maintained radio communication with the other team to keep track of progress. Moxan had also encountered several forces and split his team into smaller groups to cover more ground. Genham occasionally tried to open a door into a room but they were all locked tight. If he were to free these children he would have to find the main controls. "Kev," whispered Moxan over their radios "one of my teams have found a hanger with ships in as well as a control room. They'll try to unlock it." A few seconds passed. "Never mind, that team's dead. They got ambushed. I suggest you find your kid back so we can get the hell outta here! I'm heading back to the main room to see if we can buy you some time." Genham accepted the message and split his team up. After a few minutes of searching, one of his teams reported in saying they found the medical areas and that they see a boy fitting Elazul's description in there behind some bullet proof glass but they were under fire and needed assistance ASAP. Genham dropped his mercenary assault rifle and sprinted to the team's location keeping a handgun with him. He found the team being pinned behind a wall by some sort of turret on the far end of the hallway. The Med Center was 3/4 of the way down. He walked up, told everyone of his team the new plan. He was to draw their fire and the team were to move forward and then cover him as he moved forward. This technique was an old one and even went back to the 2nd Earth World War. It wasn't the best option in many cases but there was no choice here unless they wanted to retreat. There was no chance of that happening. Genham twisted around the corner firing his assault rifle which had been returned by his team mates who caught up. As he sprayed he sent some of the soldiers into a fearful frenzy of trying to take cover instead of shooting. Half his team managed to move forward and take cover behind a conveniently placed chest high wall several feet wide. They then provided cover while Genham and the other half of the team moved forward. This process was repeated twice more. Now for the final sprint to the medical room doors made of bulletproof glass. His team covered Genham as he reached the doors. Elazul sat on a bed but the moment he saw Genham attempt to break in his heart jumped with joy.

That was Genham's final mistake. Blood splashed across the glass completely covering what was outside. Elazul screamed so loud, so angry. The soldiers and mercenaries outside heard this scream and felt fear and sadness simultaneously. He pummeled the glass with everything he had but it wouldn't even crack. Elazul fell to his knees crying and bellowing shouting "Genham!" over and over again wishing to be in his father's arms once again.

Moxan heard the news and stood there. He couldn't understand what had just happened. He zoned out flicking through memories that he had with his older brother, Keval. His brother's ceremony when he officially became a policeman. The play fights. He snapped back into reality with vengeance and anger in his heart but he couldn't let that get the better of him. Not here. "Everyone get back to the ship!" he called out. Too many people had died. No more will today under his command. Moxan started walking back to his ship outside the facility when he heard gunfire from behind. He turned to find Genham's remaining team trying to run to the ship but getting mowed down by Cerberus' troops. He couldn't bare to see any more of his team die. "Get that ship off this damned planet! I've got some payback to do." and he turned his earpiece off blocking communications. He cocked his machine gun, spawned two turrets, aimed at the main entrance and wasted anything that came through but there were too many. He took two shots to the chest and fell to one knee. He continued firing at the Cerberus forces however as his ship lifted from the ground. He overloaded one of the trooper's shields causing him to electrocute all the troopers around him. He took another round to the shoulder and fell flat onto his back. A Cerberus soldier walked up to him, pointed a pistol at Moxan's head, and fired.


	8. Escaping Hell

Elazul spent the next ten years in the Cerberus facility. He slowly lost his identity as he even started to refer to himself as Subject 0713 but he always made sure he remembered his real name. He saw friends come and die over that time yet he persevered by training himself to be able to create Mass Effect fields inside his own body to encase the poisons that the scientists would often inject into his body in the name of science. They were always trying to find ways to improve Subject Zero's performance and experimenting on other people her age always seemed to be the easiest way to do it. Sometimes Elazul would let a fraction of the injected liquids into his bloodstream just so that his condition would not always be perfect and he would suffer over the next few weeks from a single dosage when others would die. As time went on he even grew an immunity to some of the chemicals but still faked symptoms other children were having.  
Sometimes the scientists would pit him against Subject Zero and they would fight ferociously using biotics to throw and cut each other. Some days Elazul would manage to momentarily trap her in a stasis field where she could not move and other days he would weaken her drastically but he never won. She was far too powerful and he suspected that this poor creature kept having biotic implants permanently added to her body as well as chemicals to enhance her abilities. Over the years however, she stopped using biotics as much when fighting Elazul. She would run up to him and start punching and kicking and Elazul would respond in kind and block, weave and strike where he could. These winner of these fights would be the more skilled between the two on the day and as time went on, they couldn't wait 'till they fought each other again. Both Elazul and Subject Zero had never felt so close to anyone else before and they were the only constant thing in each other's lives. "I've got to stop thinking about her" he often chuckled to himself. But just as he got comfortable with this thought, he would remember those he lost or would never see again.  
Though Elazul had his comforts about this place, he would never forgive Cerberus for what they had done to his adoptive father Sargent Genham who he watched die and his first friend here named Leon who he also believed to be killed by Cerberus during a mercenary raid on the facility. Elazul continuously trained himself to fight in multiple ways using biotics and imagining weaponry where he was able to fit it in. Once he even managed to get hold of a weapon when, during a fight, Subject Zero threw him into a guard watching the ring fight and Elazul picked up the weapon to ward the attacker back. He remembered everything about the weapon that he could. The way that the pistol grip of this assault rifle rested comfortably in his hand, the way the foregrip lay in his palm as he pointed the barrel at Subject Zero, and how the body gleamed white and pushed down with the weight. There was no magazine cache due the weapons of this era had artificial mass effect fields fire a shred of metal taken from a solid metal block. There was a dangerous risk of a weapon overheating however but this hardly mattered as he was tackled to the ground seconds after he got to his feet.  
One day, just as he turned 17 years old, he walked into the ring of the arena after every other subject was defeated by Subject Zero but to his surprise, she did not attack him first. She attacked the soldiers and the scientists around him. They cried in agony and fear screaming useless words such as "Help!" and "Get away from me!" but she dispatched them quickly, efficiently and systematically. Elazul did not join in on the rampage but chose instead to stand and admire the way she moved muttering his own words in response such as "Wow!" and "Glad I'm not that guy.". She heaved heavily trying to catch her breath back. Her eyes caught his and she walked over to him. She looked uncomfortable but Elazul felt the sides of his lips rise in a smile as this cute girl approached him. It felt unreal but as she got close he felt a sort of aura come off her. One off hate, anger, fear but out of all of these there was something else. He never noticed it before but now she was standing close to him, he could see she was shorter than he was by a couple of inches and she was unmistakably beautiful. Her face was thin and her eyebrows slanted higher towards the center. They stared at each other for seemed like an eternity but reality came crashing back when a guard stirred from his unwilling slumber. Elazul turned his head but Subject Zero held his face with both of her firm, scared, hands and turned him to face her. He looked directly into her large brown eyes and was transfixed by this creature. She kissed him and his eyes opened wider in amazement and her arms closed in around him. As their lips locked he held her tight around her waist and returned the kiss as strong as he'd received it. After this however, he could not remember anything. Presumably he'd been drugged by a dart that a guard fired at him but he couldn't be certain. In any case, he'd never seen Subject Zero since. From that day on they would never let him fight her again.

Elazul never stopped his own combat training however and continued to find new ways to improve himself be it mentally or physically. He played chess with himself and others, ran laps, ate a lot of food and socialized Everyday as he went to bed in the room he owned over many years, he would make an escape plan but in his mind he always figured each plan to be unrealistic and impossible. He would need the help of the other subjects to get out. On the other hand, he could recruit the help of many of the guards instead. They had knowledge and access to anything regarding the facility. If he could get just a handful into his palm, he could take the facility over and free everyone including Subject Zero. He had nothing to offer them however but he had to find a way out. His plan finally pieced together near his 18th birthday as he was playing chess against a new subject his age named 4107. He chose to go for the disguise option and knock a guard out to steal his armor, then use his key-card to open the doors to every room in the facility from the main control room. He was confident that this plan would work and freedom was going to be his birthday present to himself. "Hey, 4107, I'll get you out of here in two days. I promise."  
The other boy muttered under his breath "All the other guys say that no one's ever made it out though. You sure you will?"  
"'course I will. All you have to do is make sure you don't die before then." Elazul chuckled. Too soon it seemed though as 4107's group got called in to fight Subject Zero. Before he left however, Elazul grabbed his arm and told him to tell Subject Zero that 0713 says "Hi." With any luck, that will keep him alive until the escape.  
Unfortunately, luck wasn't on his side and Elazul heard from the other children that "4107 said something to her and she ripped him to pieces. Almost literally! There was blood everywhere! Her eyes went blue and you could see dark energy bounce off her like lightning! She even flew!" This was not good. Chances are the poor lad wasn't even alive now and it was his fault. But why did she react like that? It made no sense. He went to bed for the last time in this dump and he tried to remember all the things he had learnt over the time he stayed here.

His eyes flashed open the next day as the bell sounded and his room door opened. A guard stood in the doorway to check on him as was normal but before he could move toward the next room, Elazul pulled him into the room and knocked the soldier unconscious by strangling him from inside the armor using mass effect fields. He wriggled across the floor clutching his neck before slumping over. Elazul stripped the man of his shining white armor and put it on in time to walk out and assure the other soldiers that nothing had happened and that "The subject inside wishes to be left alone". He continued to open the rest of the cells and then left the area entirely. He moved through the research and development section unhindered by soldiers or scientists and reached the control room on the other side of the research area with ease.  
As he walked into the room, everyone sitting at their computer terminals turned to look at him not expecting a soldier to enter. He smiled inside his helmet and let out "Night night, scum" before smearing the walls, floors, and computer pannels with skull juice. He proceded to lock the room down by putting a mass effect field around it preventing it from opening while he played with door access codes. Eventually he managed to unlock every door from in the control room by threatening one of the remaining alive officers with death if he didn't give Elazul the codes. Before leaving however, Elazul found there was a hanger that he could reach and help the other inmates get off the planet from. He spoke over the intercom "Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls! This is Elazul, subject 0713, declaring your freedom! Please make your way to the hangar located through the research department and out the other side." His heart pounded in excitement before sadness overcame him. He heard screaming, shouting and overall, gunfire. The soldiers had reacted to the escape attempt. Elazul had not thought about the repercussion that his action might take on the rest of the children and how the soldiers would react. He looked at the security camera feeds and saw children being massacred in the parks, canteen and in their rooms. Unfortunately for the guards however, Subject Zero's room had also been unlocked. He saw her run through hoards of guards demolishing ranks of them with flicks of her wrist. She seemed different now though. There was no fear anymore in her. Not like before. There was only anger. From here, there was nothing Elazul could do for anyone else. He took his mass effect fields down from the doors, let them open and put a bulletproof bubble around himself. Soldiers poured magazines worth of bullets at him but not a single round managed to get through. His eyes had gone black in sadness and in truth of his failure, it released his strength which he spent years increasing to a point stronger than most biotics with implants had. He moved like a ghost past the guards as they stood now in terror of this disguised menaced who could not die. He reached the hangar and closed the doors behind him.

Something clicked in his mind and he stopped dreaming. His eyes returned to normal and he gazed around the large steel hangar full of space wary vessels. He saw a squad of soldiers run onto a ship to escape the facility and him but he caught up with them without difficulty as he bounded after them using mass effect fields to propel him forward. "Get me out of here or I'll kill every one of you right now!" he belowed to the pilot. They obliged all too easily and Elazul left the planet without a shred of remorse.


	9. Hello Captain

Elazul entered the ship wary of any resistance but all the Cerberus troops went about their duties in the ship. The pilot and co-pilot were seated at the front of the vessel in the cockpit. The pilot on the left hand side of the ship flicked a switch and steel blinds folded open on the outside of the ship revealing a dark sky as they left the planet. "Confirming co-ordinates with you Flight Lieutenant." Called the co-pilot to the pilot. The pilot glanced over at his friend then back at Elazul. Elazul stood behind the two pilot seats in the space vessel now watching them navigate their way through the stars in what now became apparent to Elazul as a random direction. "Take me to Earth" he muttered loud enough for the pilot to hear. Strangely, his voice seemed off. It was then that Elazul realized he still the Cerberus armor on.

"Yes sir." Came the reply through the pilot's helmet. The helmet was a sealed piece of head gear so which caused his voice to have an electronic distortion to it. The pilot was not afraid. He was used to being told what to do and Cerberus would have him killed if he disobeyed commands anyway. He figured he might as well fly this psychopath to Earth and hand himself in. At least that way he can stay alive. "Sir, if I may speak, the Earth defenses would open fire on us the moment we came within 10,000 miles of Earth. They would hit us and cause severe critical damage by the time we reached 2,000 miles of Earth. How do you expect to make it through."

Elazul brooded over the question. He replied with a flat tone "Stick with the course. I'll think of something." He turned away from the pilot and the stars and looked into the dark cold ship. He saw soldiers seated all the way down the ship's main corridor facing control panels that lined the walls. There were whirs and beeps and clicks emanating from each panel. Each soldier had a duty on this ship to maintain for several hours a day. Elazul walked past half a dozen soldiers on each side before reaching the main section of the ship where the captain stood over a map of the galaxy.

"You've taken over my ship, child." The captain said as he turned around to face Elazul. He was helmeted and so his voice was distorted just as every other soldier's was. The only difference with him however was that he had 3 red pips in a vertical line the shape of domes on his shoulder. "I'm not going to tell my men to fight you however. I saw you fight with Subject Zero many a time and I don't wish for my crew to die pointlessly." The captain paused using this time to try and predict what kind of person Elazul was. When no reply came he continued "However, plotting a course to Earth in a Cerberus vessel is not an intelligent move. You'll get my crew killed. If you do not change our direction, I release the command for everyone here to open fire on you. The deaths will be many but there will be survivors."

Elazul had nearly forgotten that the people underneath the armor were still human. They had been so much of a daily routine that they seemed like machines. He sighed and spoke back. "Alright, in that case, we'll go somewhere safe for all of us. I'll get my own ship and crew and head to Earth myself." The captain, crossed his arms not expecting the speech he had said to work. He smiled underneath the helmet.

"Child, what's your name?"

"That's not for you to find out."

"I know you're subject 0713. You're the last of any subject number below 1000."

"And that's all you need to know. Where do you suggest we go, Captain?" Elazul spoke looking around at the armed soldiers walking away clearly expecting that they would need to kill him.

"I'd say Omega if you want a ship and crew. Most people there are mercenaries and they're cheap to hire but I warn you, most people there are also filthy aliens. I suggest getting in there, grabbing a crew, and getting the hell out of there." The captain paused momentarily again. "You don't have any money."

Elazul turned away and walked back toward the cockpit. "I'll find a way."


End file.
